Vlogember Days 3 and 4

Hey y'all so day 3 was really short so I combined Day 3 and 4 into one vlog! Check it out!

Day 5 coming soon to the internet near you! 

-Jillian Ilana 

Day 2

Here's Day 2!! Check out The Chocolate Bar and The Galleria.

VLOGEMBER

Hey Y'all,
So I'm doing vlogember where I'll vlog everyday in November. So here is my day one and day two will be up shortly!

-Jillian Ilana 

Day 2

Of course I'm keeping my promise by posting everyday in honor of Dwarfism Awareness Month, and Inspiration Wednesdays are not included in that. So today I'm going to make a top ten list of things that wouldn't have happened if I was an AP

10. Not getting carded at the movie theater while my friend did and we're the same age
9. Getting asked if I could be given as a gift
8. Having someone give me a dollar to take a picture with me
7. Something I can't mention here but I can say it happened on Bourbon Street (still scarred a little bit from that)
6. Being told I'm a cutie from complete strangers
5. Getting a free bracelet because I have a cute butt
4. Watching my mom get told to be quiet because the lady wanted to give me a free bracelet
3. Getting a medical fast pass at Disney World and Universal Studios
2. Being a football trainer
1. Playing volleyball with other dwarves on Amy Roloff's team


So that's it for now!
-Jillian Ilana

Inspiration Wednesday

It's Hump Day! Happy almost National Mean Girls Day! But more importantly it is Inspiration Wednesday...or inspirations. My inspirations today I discovered by accident. I had to have been a sophomore in high school and I wanted to learn how to do makeup. So naturally I went to youtube. I typed in "make up looks" and the amount of results was staggering. But one look caught my eye and I'll include the video here.

I got inspired by her boldness to wear bright colors and wanted to emulate her style so I kept watching and once I made a youtube account I subscribed to her channel. Over the years she not only taught me how to do makeup, but how to be brave enough to stand out in a crowd and to embrace my inner and outer beauty. She has inspired me to think outside the box and to see beauty in a new and creative way.

My second inspiration I discovered through my first inspiration. Actually they're related. My second inspiration is the first girls younger sister and I first saw her sitting as a model for her older sister. Recently I found her youtube channel and I also subscribed to her channel. Her videos are more about style rather than beauty and she has opened up my eyes to a whole new world of fashion that I have fallen in love with, but there was one video that truly inspired me. Again I'll post it here, but it talked about eating disorders and watching it made me cry and made me realize that my body is mine, it's no one else's. The only person who should care about what my body looks like and there is no reason to hurt myself in order to try to have a body that someone else says I should want. 

So who are these girls? On youtube, they go by the names Xsparkage and Chwelsea respectively. In real life they are Leesha (Alicia) and Chelsea and they inspire me to be the most beautiful I can be on the inside and out. If you haven't watched any of their videos I suggest you do, they are two inspiring women who have definitely given me a better outlook on life. 

Keep on the look out for my day two post today and thank you Leesha and Chelsea for being inspirations, thank you thank you thank you. 

-Jillian Ilana

Leesha's Channels: 

Xsparkage- https://www.youtube.com/user/xsparkage

Chwelsea- http://www.youtube.com/user/superdooperrad 

Dwarfism Awareness!

Morning. It's morning, everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are gonna get out of...(name that movie!). 
Hey y'all so I'm in a movie kind of mood because something very exciting is happening here for the next few weeks, or months. So in case you didn't know I am now a student and Metropolitan City State College. Yupp and guess who goes to school with me? Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko. Still don't know who they are? Maybe you know them by their real names, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Yupp, Tulane University is the set of 22 Jump Street, the sequel to 21 Jump Street. Needless to say I am on the hunt for Channing and Jonah, maybe he'll come to the showing of This is the End tonight? Fingers crossed! 

Along with 22 Jump Street, today marks the beginning of Dwarfism Awareness Month. That's right, October is Dwarfism Awareness Month so everyday this month I will be writing a post or creating a vlog or a little of both. Inspiration Wednesdays will not be a part of the daily posts so on Wednesday be on the look out for two posts not one. 

I am proud to be a dwarf, I truly am. While I'm not going to say that there are some days when I wish I was taller, or simply wish I wasn't a dwarf, I wouldn't trade my small body for anyone else's any day of the week. If I wasn't a little person, I wouldn't have LPA in my life, I probably wouldn't be an athletic trainer, I wouldn't have gone to Detroit, Brooklyn, Orlando, Nashville or DC for the best weeks in my life. I wouldn't have some of my best friends or my twin by my side and I certainly wouldn't be writing this blog. 

So what's in store for the next month? Posts about anything and everything whether it's a day in the life or something more serious, I'll write it. In the mean time, my challenge to you is to wear the color of Dwarfism Awareness Month which is green. Any shade of green is acceptable all I ask is that you wear it at least one day this month. Send me a picture of you in your green and I'll post it in a blog post. You can send them to me at jicurwin@gmail.com. 

Till tomorrow! 
-Jillian Ilana 

On a more serious note...

Hey y'all, so it's Thursday night and I have been going back and forth about writing this post. Clearly I decided to write it but I want to make it clear that I'm not attacking anyone or any group of people, that has never been or ever will be the aim of any blog post I write. I'm merely writing this blog to talk about my life experiences as a little person in an average sized world. That being said, I felt that this post was necessary just to shed a little light on a situation.

There are a lot of groups on Facebook, I'm sure all of you are in more than you realize, I know I am. One group in particular got attention from the little people community and not in a good way. The group was called "I Wish I Could Have A Midget For A Pet". Granted it was an old group that had not been updated in probably 3 years but the page should not have existed in the first place. There was a rallying cry to report the page and to get it off of Facebook as fast as possible and surprisingly we were met with delays. We got a reply saying that it was not going to be removed but our feelings were noted. Needless to say, the little people community was upset but that didn't stop us and as of when I last checked Facebook, the page no longer exists.

To report the page I had to go to the page and I was shocked at some of the things the creator had written. It hurt to know that there are people who feel that way about little people. I completely understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and can express that in any way they feel, but when comments were made asking to take it down because it was offensive, the page owner could not understand why people felt that way.

I understand that I was not personally attacked in the Facebook page but I am a little person and to see something like that hurt. If you agree with the person who made the page, you are more than welcome to your opinion, I will not look down on you any less as a person, I just hope that I along with the rest of the little people community can make you see that we are dwarves and we are people just the same.

Before I end the post, I just want to reiterate that it is not my to attack anyone not only in this post but in my blog as a whole. Thank you for reading!

-Jillian Ilana